Temperatures are rising and soon the streets of New York will throng with muscular men in very short shorts stomping along to Lady Gaga. To be honest they would be doing it even if it was raining. Summer is officially here, New York's 2012 Gay Pride is in full swing and the parade – one of the world's largest – is set for Sunday. And this year there is plenty to celebrate.

This has been a big year in the US for the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community. Friday marked the one year anniversary of New York's decision to recognise same sex marriage, becoming the largest state so far to do so. Now president Barack Obama has finally come out for gay marriage, pushed out of the closet by the gay community's new favourite daddy, Joe Biden. Last year gays in the military had to hide their orientation. This year defence secretary Leon Panetta is hosting the Pentagon's first pride party.

As our interactive guide to gay rights across the US shows, there is still a long way to go. But that won't stop the rainbow horde whooping it up across the North America this week with pride festivals in Chicago, New Orleans, Cleveland, Seattle, Houston and Toronto.

Friday marked the one year anniversary of New York's decision to recognise same sex marriage. Photograph: George Pejoves

The celebration doesn't stop there. In London Worldpride kicks off on Monday as the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community celebrate in the Olympic city. And across Europe people will be cracking out their glo-sticks in cities from Paris to Budapest.

"It's been a historic year and there's more to come," said Bill White, Constellations Group chief and a major supporter of gay rights. White and his partner Bryan Eure were married last year by David Boies, the famed lawyer now fighting to have California's ban on gay marriage overturned. "This is a seminal moment in the civil rights movement. There's still a great deal to be done but we are getting there," he said.

For those trying to work out where the best parties are at, Grindr, a *coughs* social app for gay men, has kindly shared this map of their usage. Grindr now has over 4m users and the map gives a fascinating snapshot of where the geographic spread of the gay community.

Some things are obvious: there are a lot of homosexuals on the US coasts, and the UK is almost totally gay apart from the far north of Scotland, where one assumes the cellphone signal is too poor for Grindr or it's too cold to bother with sexual orientation at all. Other details are more intriguing. Who are all those gays floating in the Persian Gulf? And for those waiting for Tehran Pride, bad luck, it seems president Ahmadinejad was right, there are no gays in Iran. Well not on Grindr anyway.